Lake Hamana 3.63

Lake Hamana in Shizuoka Prefecture is Japan's tenth-largest lake (by area). It spans the boundaries of the cities of Hamamatsu and Kosai.DataThe lake has an area of 65.0 km² and holds 0.35 km³ of water. Its circumference is 114 km. At its deepest point, the water is 16.6 m deep. The surface is at sea level.Economic activityLake Hamana is a commercial source of cultivated Japanese eel, nori, oysters and Chinese soft-shelled turtles. Fishers take sea bass, whiting, and flounder, among others. The lake has been developed as a resort area, with boating as a feature.HistoryIn ancient times, Lake Hamana was a fresh-water lake. However, a great earthquake in 1498 altered the topography of the area. As a result, the water in the lake is now brackish.The old name for this lake is Tohotsu-afumi, which means "distant fresh-water lake" and later changed to Tōtōmi. From the perspective of the capital in the Kinai, Tōtōmi is more distant than the other famous lake, Chikatsu-afumi or Ōmi (now Lake Biwa), the "nearby fresh-water lake." The name Tōtōmi was also used for a former province in which the lake is located (Tōtōmi Province).